Wireless body area network development for remote patient health observing

Abstract

The overall goal of this paper is to create a wireless body area network (WBAN). A range of different sensors including heart rate using electrocardiography (ECG), temperature, and accelerometer for fall detection were used. Each sensor was connected to a microcontroller with an RF module to transmit the data to a base station. The base station will be used to display sensor data locally. Medical and commercial sensors were used as benchmarking to validate and calibrate wearable sensors date. The Arduino Uno platform was employed to act as the processor unit for the deployed units, communicates with sensors and RF transceivers. All sensors drivers were developed and tested individually before integrated in the area network. A Labview graphical user interface (GUI) was constructed to display and assess the sensors signals locally. The sensor data and the RF modules will also be connected to the cloud either through a GSM modem or a Wi-Fi gateway. This provides remote access to sensor data and to the RF modules. Zigbee mesh network was created to connect the RF units wirelessly. They can therefore be remotely managed, configured and administered by qualified personnel. The final WBAN prototype was demonstrated using real persons at different moving postures to test overall system performance.